


After 03x03 (The Inside Job)

by PseudoLeigha



Series: (More) 2AM Conversations [33]
Category: Leverage
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-23
Updated: 2016-08-23
Packaged: 2018-08-10 13:09:20
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,338
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7846303
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PseudoLeigha/pseuds/PseudoLeigha
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hardison and Parker talk about family;<br/>Eliot and Parker talk about the team (a little P/E, by request);<br/>Nate and Parker get existential (also by request - for more Nate/Parker interaction, not the existential bit).</p>
<p>Parker's POV</p>
<p>It's been a while, so I don't actually remember who /made/ the requests. Sorry.</p>
            </blockquote>





	After 03x03 (The Inside Job)

After the Wakefield job, it seemed like everyone wanted to talk to Parker. The only person _Parker_ wanted to talk to was Archie. Then she wanted to change her door code, and shift her bed and rigs-in-development to a different warehouse. It wasn’t that she didn’t _trust_ the crew – she had given Nate her real address, for emergencies, and made the code something she knew Sophie could guess, and she was glad she did, because it had helped them get to her in time – she just… wasn’t comfortable with anyone knowing where she holed up. Plus it was a point of pride that even Hardison, who knew _everything,_ didn’t know where she slept.

It wasn’t really _surprising_ that they wanted to talk. She had a lifetime of experience learning from her mistakes, and knew without being told exactly what she had done wrong, and what the consequences would have been if the crew hadn’t come for her, and why she should never, ever do anything like that again. But like she had told Archie, the Leverage crew was a little less disciplined than that. Nate liked telling people what to do, and Eliot had this _thing_ about ‘debriefing’ after jobs, and Sophie had gotten used to talking through the grifting parts of the jobs for the rest of them after and teaching them how to do it better, and any time she was in danger, Hardison did this thing where he wanted to be around her all the time for a few days, like he thought she was going to suddenly disappear on him.

She thought that it would be Sophie who caught up to her first, but she had also assumed that Hardison would, at some point, actually let her out of his sight. As soon as she and Nate got back from seeing Archie off, he’d glued himself to her side, and didn’t leave until everyone else cleared out, leaving the two of them alone in the Poker Room. She absently palmed cards and flicked them across the felt as he gathered his thoughts.

He took a deep breath, and then, “Archie said he was your father.”

That was _not_ what she was expecting him to say. She shrugged, and flicked another card trying to land it exactly on top of the last. Archie had been saying for years that he thought of her like a daughter. He had _real_ daughters, so he should know. She kind of had to take his word for it, since she didn’t really know what it was like to have a father.

But it wasn’t exactly news.

Hardison _harrumphed_ , then shifted like his chair was uncomfortable, or maybe his thoughts. “You, uh…” He paused. Sighed. Opened his mouth with that little intake of breath like he meant to say something, but then didn’t. Twice. Sighed again, differently.

“What are you trying to say, Hardison?” _I’m not Sophie, I can’t read your mind_ , she thought, wishing he would just say it or go away.

And then words started spilling out of him. “I got put with Nana when I was eight. She an’ Pop – they were the best I could’ve hoped for, y’know? Don’ really remember my dad. He died or ran off or somethin’ way before my mama died, an’ even that’s not real clear, ‘cos I was like, five. But Nana an’ Pop, they were the best family I could’ve imagined, gettin’ me outta the System, like they did. _They_ were family, an’… an’… they woulda hated the way Archie was talkin’ about you, up on that roof, ‘fore we got you on coms – he was sayin’ you were like, his masterpiece.”

Parker gave him a small smile. She knew exactly how proud of her Archie was, even if he was angry that she risked her life for his family and everyone else, but it was nice that the rest of the team knew it, too.

Hardison didn’t seem to think so, though. He frowned dramatically, biting the inside of his lip before he added, “He was talkin’ like you’ hardly even human, Parker, let alone his daughter. It ain’t right.”

She mirrored his frown. “Hardison?”

“Yeah?” He looked… worried? She wondered why.

“I’m… Look.” She took a deep breath, trying to find a way to articulate what she wanted to say. “You got lucky. I never did. Archie…” She hesitated to admit anything this personal, but Hardison had been in the System. He knew what kind of things happened there, even if he was one of the lucky ones. “Archie never hurt me. He never touched me any way I didn’t want. He never got drunk or high and forgot I was there. By the time I met him, I didn’t need more parents, I needed a teacher. He did more for me than any other ‘father’ ever did, so he can call me his daughter or his masterpiece or apprentice or whatever he wants.”

Hardison didn’t seem to have anything to say to that. He tried, again, for another few minutes, like he did before, sighing and muttering under his breath. Eventually, she just got up and walked away. He didn’t follow her.

* * *

Her conversation with Eliot went much easier than she expected, when she let herself into his apartment the following night.

Sophie came to her, early in the morning. She was waiting outside when Parker showed up with a stolen car ( _borrowed_ , really, since she _did_ put it back when she was done with it) and a few boxes to move her things to a different warehouse. She had a feeling that particular conversation hadn’t gone the way Sophie had expected, because she seemed to want to make sure that Parker was alright, and Parker couldn’t figure out why she was even asking. She hadn’t been caught, or even hurt, and it wouldn’t damage her reputation _at all_ to have triggered a Steranko and escaped, even if the others _had_ stepped in to help her finish the job.

Eliot, by contrast, seemed to be avoiding her. He didn’t come to the office all day. Parker wanted everything to go back to normal as soon as possible, so she decided to track him down. It wasn’t hard.

He was still angry, that much was clear, but instead of tearing into her about all the bad choices she made, he only had one thing to say. Well, two things, but the first one was his usual complaint about her letting herself in through his bedroom window and catching him sleeping without pants. She was pretty sure if he really minded, he would start wearing pants, so she ignored this complaint, as usual. The other (probably more important) thing was, “No solo jobs, Parker. We’re a team now. That means we’re counting on you not to run off and get yourself killed. We share resources, we share the danger, and we share the payout. If you fuck things up for yourself, you’re fucking things up for us, and that’s not okay.”

She nodded. She hadn’t really thought of it like that, before. She didn’t like that they had to come rescue her, but when he put it like that, she understood why they did.

“So you’ll tell someone, if you want to take an outside job?”

She nodded again.

“Use your words, Parker,” he growled.

She smirked. It was a very _Sophie_ thing to say, but a very different way than she would’ve said it. She considered teasing him by shaking her head, but seeing as she was trying to fix things, she decided to humor him. “I’ll tell you if I’m taking an outside job. Or Nate. Promise.”

“Good. S’all I’m askin’ for,” he sat up carefully, covering himself with a pillow, even though she didn’t mind seeing him without it. Eliot was _very_ fit. “I’m assumin’ you know more’n I do about what exactly went wrong in there.”

She sighed, distracted from thoughts of naked Eliot by the fact that she had been _so close_. There was a large part of her that wanted to find _another_ Steranko, just to prove that she _could_ crack it _right_ , as a point of pride. But you couldn’t improve if you refused to focus on what you did wrong, and pride gets good thieves killed. That was one of the most important lessons Archie had ever taught her. So she admitted her mistake, and left it at that: “My intel was bad. I got in fine, entered the wrong code, set off the alarms. I shouldn’t have rushed verifying the codes the employer provided.”

“What would you have done if we hadn’t’a showed up?” There was more curiosity than accusation in the question.

She shrugged. “Worst case, the cops would’ve got me out of the building. And it’s not like they put Sterankos in cop cars or holding cells. I’d’ve been fine.” She hesitated, then admitted: “But Archie and his family wouldn’t. And no one would have stopped the mad scientist blight lady.” A few seconds later she added, “Thanks for following me.” She meant it. She couldn’t have _really_ stolen the blight without him, or the rest of the team.

“’S my job, Parker,” he said in the gruff tone Sophie had identified for her as ‘begrudgingly fond.’ It meant he liked her, even if he didn’t want to admit it.

She nodded and let herself back out through the window.

* * *

Her conversation with Nate didn’t happen for nearly a week after that. She had almost forgotten that he still hadn’t talked to her – had written it off, thinking that maybe he considered seeing Archie off with her to be enough of a one-on-one discussion. But then one night when she was hanging out at the office, researching the new Hamilton vault door on the big composite screen, he came stumbling upstairs after last call.

She ignored him, because she really, really didn’t like to see him drinking. Even if he did keep it together enough to keep the team together, and wasn’t gambling their money away on long-shot cons, she still didn’t like it. It was… _undisciplined_. Maybe even worse than her taking on Wakefield solo. At least that had been testing her skills. The drinking was just… destroying himself slowly. He wasn’t as bad as before he went to prison, but if he started getting worse again, she wouldn’t bother telling Sophie to fix him again. She’d use Eliot’s words and tell him herself: Destroying himself would destroy all of them, because they were a team.

No sooner had she reached that decision than she realized he was watching her. He sat down next to her. She could smell the whisky on his breath.

“You know, I’m proud of you,” he said, his voice less hindered than his feet by the alcohol.

She gave him a look that said ‘Why?’ and then, when he didn’t answer, repeated it aloud. “Why?”

“You went back. For the blight. Wakefield. You saw through Hannity’s plan before any of us, before me, and you made the call to go back when you could’ve got out. The Parker I used to know wouldn’t have done that.”

“Old Parker wouldn’t have gone in to save Archie’s family in the first place,” she pointed out. She wasn’t entirely comfortable with the way being a part of Leverage had changed her over the past few years. It was… strange, feeling like there was sometimes a right thing in general that wasn’t the right thing _for her_. Before, she had never known that helping people could feel as good as helping herself used to, back when she had had nothing. But she had friends now, and a team, and she had learned _so much_ about how to act like normal people – how to _relax_ , instead of being disciplined and on-guard all the time _._ She even enjoyed it, sometimes, like when she and Hardison listened to music and watched old movies and ate junk food, or when she practiced fighting with Eliot. She thought she was glad she had stuck around, on the whole.

Nate had been quiet while her mind wandered, but now he was talking again. “Doesn’t mean I’m not proud of you.” Silence settled between them for a long moment, mostly because she didn’t know what to say to that. Archie had never expected anything when he said, _Well done, Parker_ , but there was an expectant quality to Nate’s pause, as though he did.

“Okay?” she hazarded. She was pretty sure that was the wrong thing to say.

Her guess was confirmed when Nate gave a disappointed sigh. “Parker, you… you know I think of you as a person, right? You’re not _just_ a thief to me, or a tool.”

“Um… okay?” She hesitated, confused as to where he was going with this. “I… _am_ a thief, though. Even if I’m stealing to help people, now,” _most of the time_ , she added silently, “I’m still a thief.”

“I just… you have to tell me if I’m treating you like Archie used to, okay? If I’m treating you like the only thing about you that matters is your skills.”

“Um… okay,” she repeated, more firmly this time. “But, um… why? I’m the thief. It’s what I do for the team. If you don’t want me here for my skills, what am I here for?”

Nate just blinked at her, as though he didn’t understand the question. Which, honestly, was fine, since she didn’t understand half of what he had just been saying. Eventually he shook his head and muttered, “What are any of us here for, in the end?” Then he said, louder, “Just… never mind. I’m going to bed. Night, Parker.”

She shrugged, putting the confusing interaction out of her mind, as he suggested, and focusing again on the vault door on the screen. “Night, Nate.”

She was pretty sure he thought he was quiet enough not to be heard saying, “You deserved a home,” as he hauled himself up the spiral staircase.

**Author's Note:**

> This was one of the harder ones to write. I'm not sure if Parker is as on-point as usual. But the important thing is, I got through it :)


End file.
